As mobile communication devices gain increasing functionality, a device that was once merely a mobile wireless telephone becomes a “converged device” on which one may send and receive e-mail and other messages, maintain a list of contacts, maintain a schedule of meetings and events, maintain an organized list of tasks, etc.
Such converged devices often have colorful display screens on which the information related to the various functions of the device may be reviewed and manipulated. It has long been known that such display screens are a particularly large drain on battery resources and that it is important to minimize draining battery resources for mobile devices. However, it has been necessary, in many cases, to power on the display screen to receive very small units of information, for instance, notification that a new e-mail message has been received. To convey such small units of information, user interface designers for such converged devices have added light emitting diodes (LED) to the devices. For instance, a green flashing LED on the front of a converged device may serve to indicate to a user of the device that the device is in communication with a base station for a wireless cellular telecommunication system. Additionally, a second green flashing LED on the front of the converged device may serve to indicate to a user of the device that the device is in communication with a base station for proximate wireless local area network (i.e., a WiFi LAN).
Several known converged devices have multiple LEDs, illumination of each being used to convey some unit of information. However, the LEDs are not always well placed for ease in assessing the status of the device. For instance, the LEDs may not be visible to the user until removed from a carrying case. Furthermore multiple LEDs may lead to confusion as to which LED conveys what particular unit of information.